Wednesday, January 30, 2013

A new bridge called ECOtainer made from recycled shipping containers will render “trash mountain” unrecognizable to residents of Tel Aviv. The Hiriya landfill just outside of Tel Aviv shut down in 1998 after becoming the repository for 25 million tons of waste. More mountain than landfill, Hiriya has since been transformed into one of the world’s most successful reclamation projects.

Already the methane emitted from Hiriya is harvested to power a nearby factory and the surrounding area is being converted into an urban park that is safe for a variety of outdoor recreational activities. Now Yosef Messer Architects have won the Econtainer Bridge Competition, which may result in the construction of a bridge made of recycled shipping containers linking Arial Sharon Park with the main thoroughfare leading to Tel Aviv.

Each year, 800,000 maritime shipping containers are spit out into the world with nowhere to go. As a result, resourceful designers have frequently incorporated the into art and design projects. They are used for pop-up shops, for temporary restaurants, mobile eco-lodging and all sorts of other creative uses.

But to our knowledge, Yosef Messer Architects is the first to propose utilizing them as the main construction material in a 160 meter bridge.

The Israeli firm places great emphasis on reusing existing materials in order to reduce waste and on fast, efficient and inexpensive construction.

About 70 percent of the ECOtainer bridge will be constructed in a factory, which goes a long way to reducing site damage, and wooden platforms will create a path through the shipping containers, which will comprise the project’s “skeleton,” according to the design team.

Both a passageway for cyclists, pedestrians and light vehicles, the Econtainer Bridge will also be a destination in itself. Benches will be available on either edge, and rooftop platforms will frame panoramic views of southern Tel Aviv.

Photovoltaic panel louvers will serve the dual purpose of creating shading and generating energy for lighting so that the bridge will be completely self-sufficient.

Additional louvers will be included to ensure that the shipping containers, which are made of steel, won’t bake park visitors during the summer months.

Of different shapes and sizes, the recycled containers offer a variety of volumetric options, giving the client a great deal of design flexibility. And most of all, this extraordinary project, if it gets off the ground so to speak, will become a fabulous teaching tool.

Already Hiriya offers tours to people interested in urban reclamation and improved waste management, but a bridge constructed with recycled shipping containers sets a whole new precedent in a country that consistently breaksground in water conservation, wildlife management, clean technology and green architecture.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz greets the head of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, at IDF HQ.

The Chief of the Air Staff and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee of the Indian Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne, arrived yesterday, Saturday, January 19, 2013, for his first visit to Israel in his current position. He will be hosted by the Commander of the Israel Air Force, Major General Amir Eshel. Air Chief Marshal Browne previously served as the first Defense Attaché of India to Israel, between 1997 to 2000, where he set up the defense wing in the Indian embassy.

Air Chief Marshal Browne will be received in Camp Rabin (Kirya) by an IDF honor guard consisting of soldiers from the ground, air and naval forces, to the sounds of the national anthems of Israel and the Republic of India.

During the course of his visit, Air Chief Marshal Browne will conduct meetings with the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benjamin “Benny” Gantz, as well as with the Commander of the IAF, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, which will focus on cooperation between the two militaries. Air Chief Marshal Browne will also meet with the Minister of Defense, Mr. Ehud Barak.

Air Chief Marshal Browne will visit IAF bases and squadrons, where he will be briefed on the operational procedures of the IAF. He will also visit theYad VaShem Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he will lay a wreath in memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.

Israeli DJs are building quote the reputation for themselves, check out an article about Israel own, DJ Aron

Jewish National Fund said over 600,000 new trees planted over holiday weekend; expects week-long events to see a million more new saplings

The Jewish National Fund reported that a new record has been set this Tu Bishvat, as over 600,000 new trees were planted over the holiday weekend.

According to JNF World Chairman Efi Stenzle, this year’s Tu Bishvat (Israel’s Arbor Day) events, which span the entire week, will see over a million new saplings planted in forests and parks nationwide.

Over 260 cities, towns and communities participated in the JNF’s annual planting event Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of Israelis used the sunny day and came out in droves to celebrate the trees’ annual holiday.

According to Stenzle, 2013′s Tu Bishvat’s planting venture will set a new record.

“We want to thank the hundreds of thousands of people who came out today and took part in Tu Bishvat’s events in Israel,” he said.

Israel, he added, “Is the only country in the world to have more trees in the 21st century than in the previous one… We’re creating a green lung that will benefit all of us.”

Sunday, January 20, 2013

They met 10 years ago while working together in an Italian restaurant in Herzliya. Last summer, accomplished husband-and-wife chefs Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer took the plunge of opening their own 25-seat restaurant in a fashionable residential district of London.

Honey & Co. is already creating a buzz among British foodies.

“The food here is stunning, alive with colour and texture,” gushed one critic. “This little Israeli-run café and takeaway only has a few seats, but they’re the most sought-after in Fitzrovia,” revealed another. “The cakes, enticingly displayed in the window, are true eye-candy.”

The self-taught Srulovich tells ISRAEL21c: “Desserts are the thing we are most proud of. Our cakes are sensational. My wife is a pastry genius — one of the best pastry chefs in the world.”

Before opening Honey & Co. with her husband, Packer was a pastry chef for the famed Israeli restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi, and executive chef at one of his four successful London eateries. Everything at Honey & Co., from the breads to the jams, is made on premises from scratch.

Israeli and American geneticists have developed a method that can help people find family members around the world – so spy agencies will be interested too.

A male’s genome contains information that can help scientists guess his surname, American and Israeli researchers have discovered. The findings have serious implications for data privacy; intelligence services around the world are bound to be interested.

In the study published in the journal Science, researchers have developed a formula for an algorithm that can discover men’s surnames by looking at the Y chromosome, the male chromosome. The Y chromosome, which is transmitted from father to son from generation to generation, includes markers called short tandem repeats, which form a kind of fingerprint.

The researchers, headed by Dr. Yaniv Erlich of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, fed 40 markers into a computer and compared them to Y-chromosome sequences on websites. In the United States, there are companies that show people’s genome sequences derived from saliva samples; this makes it possible to determine a person’s origins and locate relatives around the world.

“Even though there isn’t a unified database of all genetic sequences on the Internet, comparing a subject’s Y chromosome with information from existing databases could help locate his family,” says Israeli team member Eran Halperin, a professor at Tel Aviv University’s Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology.

In addition to the Whitehead Institute, the research was carried out by experts at Harvard, MIT and the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California.

The researchers and doctoral student David Golan of Tel Aviv University’s statistics department developed the formula for the algorithm, which was tested on 911 men in the United States. The numbers were compared to Internet databases containing genetic sequences of 135,000 men with the most common surnames in the United States, most of them of European origin. The algorithm identified the surname 12 percent of the time, a success rate it later boosted to 18 percent.

The researchers, for example, applied the algorithm to the genome sequence of American geneticist Craig Venter, the head of a research institute in San Diego who was one of the first to sequence the human genome.

In the U.S.-Israeli experiment, the algorithm identified the Venter surname, and after crossing the data with other discoveries, figured out his age. Knowing that he lives in California, the researchers showed that only one other person in the state shares the unique spots on his chromosomes.

The researchers also scanned Y chromosomes of 10 residents of Utah, without knowing their last names; the algorithm helped them figure out the surnames of five of them, all of them Mormons.

“The identification technique could have a number of useful applications such as locating relatives and identifying corpses in natural disasters,” says Halperin. “But the research also reveals a fundamental problem: If a person publishes his genome on the Internet, even when this is done anonymously, his identity is pretty much exposed.”

Halperin adds that the ability to find a surname is based only on the Y chromosome, one of the body’s 46 chromosomes. The study also raises questions about sharing genetic information from various sources.

“We take a positive view of sharing genetic information on public databases – with permission, of course,” says Halperin. “Sharing information is essential to science, and there are many advantages to users of these services. But it’s important that all organizations involved in the data sharing be aware of the possible exposure and weigh their decisions accordingly.”

Erlich adds: “The obvious conclusion from the study is that biometrics can produce unexpected situations. We believe legislators must proceed with great caution when they plan such databases.”

Click To View VideoIn March 2008, shortly before her 99th birthday, Levi-Montalcini visitedTechnion. She came with a delegation from the Italian National Academy of Sciences as a show of support for Israel, at a time when Europe called for a boycott on Israeli scientists. Montalcini-Levi never married nor had any children. She died at home on December 30, 2012, aged 103. At a Rome event in May 2007, Technion venerated this great Italian scientist for her groundbreaking achievements in science and service to humanity.

Rita Levi-Montalcini was born on April 22, 1909, in Turin, Italy. She went to medical school and graduated summa cum laude in 1936. In 1947, an invitation from Prof. Viktor Hamburger to join his lab in St. Louis. She accepted and stayed on at Washington University, becoming a full professor in 1958. In 1962, she helped establish the Institute of Cell Biology in Rome and became its first director.Neurologist Levi-Montalcini received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986, together with biochemist Prof. Stanley Cohen, for their discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF). In 2001, Italy recognized her as a senator for life; Levi-Montalcini regularly attended Senate. She remained active in her laboratory and in developing research in Italy.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says Israel successfully implementing its policies on waste, chemicals management

srael has received positive feedback from the OECD’s Chemicals Committee and its Working Party on Chemicals Pesticides and Biotechnology regarding its implementation of the organization’s policies in these fields.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s periodic assessment found that Israel’s compliance with its obligations in the areas of chemicals and waste management were successful and satisfactory, the Environmental Protection Ministry said on its website.

A delegation from the Israeli ministry presented the OECD’s committee with the steps Israel has taken in order to meet its commitments to the OECD.

Israel’s has noted several accomplishments since joining the OECD in 2010, including establishing a mechanism for managing and registering industrial chemicals, establishing the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register mechanism to keep track of chemicals emissions, and implementation of Integrated Pollution Prevention Control policies.

Israel also made significant progress in the comprehensive management of waste via legislation, waste reduction at source, the separation of different waste streams, recycling and reducing landfill; as well as management of facilities for waste and for recycling.

The OECD committee recognized Israel’s earnest commitment and efforts in these matters, saying that it had achieved a great deal in the two years reviewed.

“The committee members, as well as OECD Secretariat representatives, said that they see much improvement in our management of chemicals,” said Romy Even Danan, head of the ministry’s Hazardous Materials Division.

The OECD’s Environmental Policy Committee (EPOC) will meet in February 2013, to discuss Israel’s progress related to other environmental issues, including the use of economic instruments to manage biodiversity, environmental information and indicators.

ACT NOW for ISRAEL: Flush ‘LUSH’ Cosmetics!

LUSH Cosmetics has quietly closed its Beverly Hills, California location several months after a group known as “Join the Boycott LA” (www.JTBLA.com) organized a protest outside the store to expose the company’s support of PLO extremism. LUSH, with headquarters in the UK and stores in over 40 countries around the world, is using its customers’ money to support the PLO’s extremist “One World Campaign”. This virulently anti-Israel organization portrays Israel as an “illegal” occupier committing crimes against “Palestine” and grossly exaggerates the suffering in Gaza, placing responsibility solely on the Israelis.

There is much more work to be done. We urge you to ACT NOW FOR ISRAEL by sending an email to customercare@lush.co.uk to protest their anti-Israel extremism.

It has come to our attention that LUSH, a leading luxury handmade cosmetics company, gives a percentage of its profits to an anti-Israel organization called “OneWorld”. Upon visiting the OneWorld website (http://freedomoneworld.org/), it is very clear that they are supported by extreme anti-Israel groups that are sympathetic to terrorist activity against the State of Israel. For example, one of the supporting groups is called “Friends of al-Aqsa”. Visiting their website speaks for itself: http://www.foa.org.uk/.

Did You Know?

Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

Did You Know?

An Israeli-initiated project is drastically lowering the mortality rate of Ethiopian children infected with the AIDS/HIV virus.

LIVE Talk Radio from Israel – Tuesday Nights!

LIVE FROM ISRAEL! TUESDAY NIGHTS 5:00PM – 7:00PM (EST)

Straight from the heart of Jerusalem comes the only English talk show on broadcast radio in the State of Israel. News, interviews, culture and ideas mixed with positivity and pride in the free, fruitful, and flourishing Jewish homeland.

Yishai and Malkah Fleisher, two well-known internet radio personalities, made the leap to broadcast radio on the new Galey Yisrael station in Israel, blazing a trail to create content for the growing segment of the Israeli public that speaks English. You won’t want to miss it!

We will be broadcast LIVE FROM ISRAEL every Tuesday Night from 5:00pm – 7:00pm (EST)

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I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.- Golda Meir